Of all the forums I have been in this is the worst for finding things. Am I stupid?

Now I have an entry in Hardware with three replies. When I answered to those replies the only way I could see to send it was Upload. It disappeared.

Why don't you have sensible commands like "Send" or "Reply" and place them where they can be seen? Am I blind?

I know my age is getting in the way, but I really think you need to get organized. Keep it simple, where it's easy to find. Right now I will send this to you by using Post New Thread. I couldn't find that when I wanted to send my reply. But it's gone - somewhere.

I have searched all over trying to find YOUR way of doing things but I seem to be wasting my time. Do you have a Kindergarten there? I need it!

I still can't get my connection to my first thread to thank the guys who helped me. I've tried Fast Reply and Post numerous times. These simple two things should work for me, right? Well they don't. I assume you want me to click on Fast Reply to start typing, then click on Post to send it. Right? I am now going to click Post to send this off to you.

I have searched all over trying to find YOUR way of doing things but I seem to be wasting my time. Do you have a Kindergarten there? I need it!

Bob -

As a certified "Dummy" perhaps I can help.

Things here are set up the way the designers of the IP.Board software thought worked best. I have a hard time getting around sometimes, too. (It took me a while to figure out that "Add Reply" and "Reply" are the same thing. See what I mean about being a card-carrying Dummy?)

Take a deep breath, and explain to me slowly, please, exactly what you're trying to do. I'll see if I can figure it out, or find somebody who can.

Woody

For Dummies book author, Senior Editor at Windows Secrets Newsletter, Senior Contributing Editor for InfoWorld, and long-suffering Windows victim. Check out the latest at AskWoody.com.

Well, the first thing is the bouncing Fast Reply. I am NOT a good typist, never was. I am going on 76 years. And my memory is fading so that I must look back and forth to get what I want to write assembled. Which means my writing is not very clear to a reader.

But when I go to the Fast Reply, its vast acreage box jumps around! I select Fast Reply, goodbye! Scan for it - Ah, there it is! Click to start - it's gone again! When I scan looking for its location, there are acres of blank boxes passing by. What's the point?

That makes me very confused, forgetting everything.

There's too much open space. I cannot see what I want to read as I am writing replies to it. The box is dancing around like Tom Delay.

All the other forums are compact, I can see what I need to see as I am writing my reply.

I'd say a lot more but it has taken me 30 minutes to write this little bit, I forgot all the other stuff I wanted to say, and it's time to go to work. Now I have to search all over this desert looking for the Post. Hope I find it before I accidently delete everything. All this writing space on the outside of my prison and what I have written is scanning away.

OH, I will copy what I just wrote so I won't need to rewrite all this stuff when I hit the wrong control.

But when I go to the Fast Reply, its vast acreage box jumps around! I select Fast Reply, goodbye! Scan for it - Ah, there it is! Click to start - it's gone again! When I scan looking for its location, there are acres of blank boxes passing by. What's the point?
- - -
There's too much open space. I cannot see what I want to read as I am writing replies to it. The box is dancing around like Tom Delay.
- - -
I'd say a lot more but it has taken me 30 minutes to write this little bit, I forgot all the other stuff I wanted to say, and it's time to go to work. Now I have to search all over this desert looking for the Post. Hope I find it before I accidently delete everything. All this writing space on the outside of my prison and what I have written is scanning away.

Are you using version 6 of Internet Explorer by the way? The antiquated systems we use at work are still bundled with that particular browser and the various fields on the screen occasionally overlap each other, making the whole 'compose, preview, add attachments' process something of a lottery.

Yeah, I see what you mean. Here's how I reply to almost all messages: I hit the Quote Within Reply button, then either edit the quoted stuff, or real quick do a Ctrl+A, then Del to get rid of the whole quote. (Or if I want to refer to the original post, I'll leave the Quote there until I'm done writing the message, then delete all or part of it.)

For me, that's faster and easier than a quick reply. Maybe it's just me, but Fast Reply is too quick.

Time to go to work? Oy! I'm headed to bed...

(*More accurately, Greetings from Phuket!)

EDIT: I just noticed Gfamily's post. You ARE using Firefox or Opera, aren't you? If you're still using IE 6, I gotta show you how to get up to speed. IE 6 will bite you in the keester sooner or later.

Woody

For Dummies book author, Senior Editor at Windows Secrets Newsletter, Senior Contributing Editor for InfoWorld, and long-suffering Windows victim. Check out the latest at AskWoody.com.

I'm running Win2KPro since 2004 and didn't think of something like that. I just kept humming along all those years because nothing went wrong. Had the Outpost firewall and Avast and all the MS updates, never had a problem. Just never got around to updating IE. No excuse. I had Firefox but didn't like it, enjoyed IE from my 95 box, just couldn't butter up to Firefox so I cut it off a few months back. But for some strange reason I recently downloaded the latest FF and have it standing by. Must have been a hint from above.

I am now building a new box for Win7Pro for my wife, I will stay with Win2KPro until it dies.

Do consider Chrome as well. It's clean and fast. It doesn't support everything, so may not be such a complete solution as FF, but I use Chrome as the default browser and only move to an alternative if absolutely necessary.

Yowsa. We just saved you from a fate worse than death. Thanks to Qfamily for picking up on the telltale signs.

Getting up to speed is easy. Try the latest Firefoxand, if you don't like it, try Chrome. Click on your choice of links, and follow the instructions on the site to install the product. It's really that easy - they both co-exist with IE just fine.

I've had a few problems with the latest Chrome crashing, but both are definitely superior to IE - if only for the fact that they don't run ActiveX.

Woody

For Dummies book author, Senior Editor at Windows Secrets Newsletter, Senior Contributing Editor for InfoWorld, and long-suffering Windows victim. Check out the latest at AskWoody.com.